Maine fire chief arrested, accused of starting 42-acre blaze

By The Washington Post

Published
11:18 pm EDT, Saturday, May 7, 2016

This photo provided by Cumberland County, Maine shows Ricky Plummer. Authorities say Plummer, an Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief, has been arrested on an arson charge over a grass and marsh blaze fought by more than 100 firefighters. Plummer was arrested at around 2 a.m. Saturday, May 7, 2016 over an April 15 fire that burned 42 acres at the Jones Creek Marsh and led to evacuations. less

This photo provided by Cumberland County, Maine shows Ricky Plummer. Authorities say Plummer, an Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief, has been arrested on an arson charge over a grass and marsh blaze fought by more ... more

Photo: Cumberland County, Maine Via AP

Photo: Cumberland County, Maine Via AP

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This photo provided by Cumberland County, Maine shows Ricky Plummer. Authorities say Plummer, an Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief, has been arrested on an arson charge over a grass and marsh blaze fought by more than 100 firefighters. Plummer was arrested at around 2 a.m. Saturday, May 7, 2016 over an April 15 fire that burned 42 acres at the Jones Creek Marsh and led to evacuations. less

This photo provided by Cumberland County, Maine shows Ricky Plummer. Authorities say Plummer, an Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief, has been arrested on an arson charge over a grass and marsh blaze fought by more ... more

Photo: Cumberland County, Maine Via AP

Maine fire chief arrested, accused of starting 42-acre blaze

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It took more than 100 firefighters to fight back the flames that consumed more than 40 acres of grass and marsh in Maine last month. Now officials say it was one of their own who started it.

Around 2 a.m. Saturday, authorities took Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief Ricky Plummer into custody on an arson charge in connection to the April 15 fire, the Associated Press reported. His arrest comes just one day after roughly a dozen investigators from the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Maine Forest Service seized computers at Plummer’s fire station and in his official vehicle.

The mid-April blaze tore through 42 acres at the Jones Creek Marsh in the southern Maine coastal town of about 8,600, where Plummer worked. At the time, he described the fire to the Portland Press Herald, noting that its flames came within 100 feet of a nearby condominium complex.

“Flames were 20 to 30 feet high, just a wall of fire and heat,” he said in April. The assembled firefighters put out the four-alarm fire with no damage to the complex and no injuries, the paper reported.

“It could have been a lot worse. It could have burned this condominium down,” Plummer said, according to the Portland Press Herald.

Town Manager Larry Mead told Old Orchard Town Council members about the arrest on Saturday morning, with some officials expressing surprise, according to the Portland Press Herald.

“We are still trying to wrap our heads around it it now,” Joe Thornton, Town Council vice chairman, told the paper.

Plummer, 59, has been fire chief since 2014 and earned $54,042 last year, according to town records reviewed by the Portland Press Herald.

Recent research shows that about 100 firefighters are arrested annually on arson charges, according to a National Volunteer Firefighter Council report. To combat the problem, the group recommends that the federal government track such charges, that a strategy be formed to prevent such incidents and that firefighters undergo thorough screenings.